Splutter, Splutter, Splutter!: Updated

I thought the Mad Emailer was a thing of the past, that I had worked out my anger through the blog, that I was now a reasonable person all of the time. But just like Closeau's unfortunate chief, I am sitting here spluttering and probably have a runaway tic. Reading Penultimos Dias I clicked on a link to what was supposedly a good recap of Cuban-American relations. Oh, it was Andrew Sullivan's Daily Dish, so it couldn't be that bad, could it?

I guess I should have known when the author of the piece, Steve Clemons, referred to his "perch" on The Huffington Post. Alas, other than remarking on it, I did not realize until later that every liberal shibboleth in the arsenal was in play. I'm not even complaining here about whatever proposal was being espoused, although I'm pretty sure it was something like "open the flood gates." It is the colossal naivete of the entire article that leaves me floored. These people run around making pronouncements like the voice of God based on wishful thinking and good PR. Amazing!

Clemon's runs through the positions of the various Dem contenders for the White House, declaring Dodd's "the gold standard:"

He wants American people to meet Cubans and wants to trigger an arbitrage between the norms of our society and theirs. That is the American way. That's what we did with China.

Of course, this won't be easy with the tourist apartheid practiced in Cuba, but that's just an inconvenient fact. And since when is there freedom in China? After all, according to the embargo lifters, that would be the logical outcome of increased trade and tourism.

Next, he brings out the big guns, Congressman Jeff Flake and the ubiquitous Joe Garcia, token Cuban American poster boy for the liberals. The aptly named Flake, who hitherto has limited himself to salivating over the business bonanza to be had in the impoverished Cuban market, is all sentiment toward the poor exiles who cannot return home at will:

President Bush's tightened restrictions on Cuban-American family travel is now forcing people to choose whether they are going to attend their father's funeral or their mother's.

Now I ask those of you who have been following the Cuba situation, when has Flake cared a rat's derriere about Cuban exiles?

Next comes the one of the few valid points in the whole exercise, the story of a poor GI who about to deploy to Iraq cannot visit his sons. Let's see, how many of those do we have?

The rest of the article dwells on the self-recriminations of the former Chief of Staff to Gen. Powell. If his is the expertise of our establishment, it is no wonder we are in the mess we're in in Iraq. Highlights:

One of the areas of Cuban activity on which we focused was what has been described as one of the world's best systems for delivering healthcare to impoverished people-

The passion in the doctors' eyes as they related their experiences in delivering basic healthcare in isolated, freezing regions of Pakistan was truly heartwarming. Some of the human interest stories the doctors related brought laughter to us all and served to demonstrate conclusively how deeply these medical personnel had been touched by their almost year-long experience in Pakistan.

Talk about effective public diplomacy!

He is absolutely right. It's all terribly effective, the use of slave doctors as a tool of diplomacy. Gee, how come Cuban doctors in Namibia, Venezuela and elsewhere defect regularly? How come host countries have to sign agreements to in effect act as their jailers? And how come this "world's best system" fails to deliver to its own? Do these people have any idea of the realities of Cuba?

There's more

Those interested in the realities of Cuba's health care progress -- and the many lessons we can learn -- can skip the Michael Moore film and instead see Salud

After the Russians, Venezuela cuddled up to the Cubans and now they essentially barter doctors and medical support for oil between each other

Let's see, the many lessons we can learn, huh. Words fail me. We can learn how to practice medicine without most medications, modern equipment, and decent facilities. And the word, barter, barter, he says. Are Cuban doctors not human beings that they should be exchanged for oil like kumquats?

Finally, he gets to his point


Fidel will not be around long in my estimation, and we need our political and policy leaders to begin plotting a policy not riveted in the past and not dominated by a shrinking cartel in Miami.

Uh, oh, you knew that was coming, the old Miami Mafia swipe. Stupidity, stupidity, stupidity!

Now before you go calling me an intransigent, historic exile, etc..., please be aware that I am nowhere near geriatric, I am a native born American, open to change. However, if you're going to make pronouncements from Mt. Olympus, you ought to know you're talking about! I would like policies built on fact, thank you. Read the whole miserable thing here.

Update: how's this for a quick turn around? If you can stand it, go to the article Clemons cites here.